As a senior, Simmons averaged 24 points, three rebounds and four assists in being named the Ohio Player of the Year. He finished his prep career as Alter’s all-time leading scorer and second in assists.

Simmons was the first freshman in school history to start for the varsity, a program that produced NBA players John and Jim Paxson. He chose Houston over Wichita State, Butler, Xavier, Dayton and UCF.

“We are extremely excited to have Jaaron join our program,” UH coach James Dickey. “He is an outstanding student-athlete and a class young man. Jaaron is a tremendous guard who can distribute, make his teammates better and also score. He is a great competitor and unselfish player, and we look forward to his arrival in Houston.”

Nathan, I get it but at some point we have to have a little faith that the people who run this program are professionals and that they are careful to check out information before going public with it. I’ve followed this program for over 50 years through any number of personnel changes and dealing with all kinds of negative rumors and false accusations spread by those who, let’s say, don’t have UH’s best interests at heart. I have never known them to put out false information. So, we’re looking at this from opposite ends of the telescope. Let’s both give them the benefit of the doubt.

Welcome Jaaron. If you are like most of the people I know who moved here from the “North” you are really going to like this town. I swear half the people here are from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Of course they came looking for jobs drawn by Houston’s economy.

Just one head’s up: you probably won’t need all your Winter clothes. It does get cold here but it doesn’t last and the sun soon pops back up. People mow their grass year round. You will find people in T-shirts and flip flops in February. Moreover you will be joining a team with a ton of youthful talent that is poised to do big things next year. Best of luck.

Phil, if you have spent any time with high school and college athletes then you know that in fact many of them are quite interested in any information posted about them. Do we know for sure in any particular case? No, but it’s harmless fun in a world where really bad things happen almost daily. To quote our esteemed blogmeister, lighten up.